Monday 22nd June 2026
Lili Boulanger D’un matin de printemps
The gifted Boulanger sisters, Lili and Nadia, were devoted both to music and to each other. Nadia lived for 92 years and was famous as musical teacher and conductor. Lili however had the compositional talent and was supported and nurtured by all of her family, including Nadia until her premature death at the age of 24 in 1918. D’un matin de printemps (On a Spring Morning) was composed in the last year of her life together with a companion work, D’un soir triste (On a Melancholy Evening), and were her last works. They were first written for small ensembles, including violin and piano as we hear tonight in its original version, but Lili also transcribed them for full orchestra. D’un matin de printemps is a short piece, less than 5 minutes, and in contrast to her increasing sickness, and the mood of D’un soir triste, has a very bright and lively character. The violin and piano version was premiered in March 1919, after her death, with Nadia playing piano, though it was not published until 1922.
Rebecca Clarke Midsummer Moon
Rebecca Clarke was an English viola player and composer who moved to the US in 1940. She composed for only a short period of her long, 93-year life, and consequently, there are very few works in the repertoire. It is only in recent years that the Rebecca Clarke’s oeuvre has been performed and recorded, and there are powerful and enjoyable experiences to be had. Midsummer Moon was published in 1926 (though she never liked the name) with a first performance two years earlier, is a short 6 minute work that has some clear folk influences is an engaging, mesmerising even passionate mood with mystical, hovering themes. The work’s soundscape comes from the nighttime, and (a connection to the Corvus Consort’s programme earlier in this festival) has a brilliant nightingale invocation!
Sergei Prokofiev Five Melodies for Violin and Piano, Op. 35b
I. Andante
II. Lento, ma non troppo
III. Animato, ma non allegro
IV. Allegretto leggero e scherzando
V. Andante non troppo
Originally written as wordless songs in 1920 for the Ukrainian soprano Nina Koshetz, the arrangement for Violin and Piano is Prokofiev’s own.
Ralph Vaughan Williams Lark Ascending
It is easy to be dismissive of The Lark Ascending because of its great familiarity, however it has a less well known history, and works remain popular for a good reason! Vaughan Williams inspiration for this work was George Meridith’s eponymous poem from 1881, which is a little long to reproduce here but is readily available online (for example, https://teach.files.bbci.co.uk/tenpieces/Poem+-+The+Lark+Ascending+by+George+Meredith.pdf). The theme of the poem is the skylark and its song, and according to Ursula Vaughan-Williams, “[Vaughan-Williams] … had made the violin become both the bird’s song and its flight, being, rather than illustrating the poem from which the title was taken.” Vaughan-Williams did write at the top of the score, a short excerpt from the poem:
He rises and begins to round,
He drops the silver chain of sound,
Of many links without a break,
In chirrup, whistle, slur and shake.
For singing till his heaven fills,
'Tis love of earth that he instils,
And ever winging up and up,
Our valley is his golden cup
And he the wine which overflows
to lift us with him as he goes.
Till lost on his aerial rings
In light, and then the fancy sings.
Originally composed for violin and piano, the first performance dates from 1920, 6 years after it was completed, with the orchestral version following a year later. The delay here may well be because “[The Lark Ascending] … showed serene disregard of the fashions of to-day or of yesterday.” (The Times, June 1921). As musicologist Lewis Forman said, “It is possible to forget what a revolutionary piece this was in the context of the British music of 1914 [with] its rhythmic freedom and flow and its avoidance of tonic-and-dominant cadencing, together with its imagery.”
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Ballade in D minor, Op. 4
The British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor entered the Royal College of Music in 1890 where he was championed by George Grove and taught composition by Charles Villiers Stanford. Of course, at that time (born only 42 years after Britain’s Slavery Abolition Act of 1833), the fact that he was of mixed race might be why he has not been as prominent as his contemporary critical acclaim would suggest, at least not until recent years. He developed an early affiliation to the chamber repertoire, and as he said in a letter from 1901, his inspirations from Tchaikovsky, Grieg and Dvořák were “[his] first musical love.” The romantic Ballade in D minor Op.4 from 1895 was originally written for violin and orchestra is an early work and shows how his unique style was still developing against these musical influences. The work is dedicated to “My Friend Miss Ruth Howell” who was the violinist at the first performance of his Clarinet Quintet.
Sally Beamish Tracing
1. Ink
2. Silhouette
3. Moon shadows
Sally Beamish wrote Tracing for Fenella Humphreys in 2025. She has written eloquently about this collaboration herself, and I can do no better than to quote her words:
When Fenella Humphreys approached me about writing a piece for violin and piano, she had an image in her head: a painting by her artist father, which she had always loved as a child. Could I base the piece on this? However, on trying to find the original painting, she drew a blank. None of the family knew where it was, and Fenella started to trawl her memory for the image – sending me descriptions and even her own pencil sketches, to try and conjure up the beloved picture. But as she said, every time she tried to get close to the memory it disappeared further…
The idea of memory has fed into the music, as well as Fenella’s descriptions of the painting: a winter night scene, with a gnarled tree, a moon, a church – possibly clouds. It might have been in ink, with cross-hatching.
The first movement is childlike and simple – a distant memory. It suggests the process of trying to pin down a half-remembered image.
The second movement refers to the silhouette of a gnarled tree: stark, but strong and positive. The image was reassuring, and I have used a passacaglia, beginning on piano, with six repetitions. A recurring pattern of falling 5ths suggests a child and a violin.
The third movement depicts clouds scudding across a moon ’that might have been red, or yellow, or white’. The uncertainty of memory, the moonlight, the transience of the image, all pervade the music.
Fenella’s playing, and also Martin’s, were important factors in the piece – I have written for both of them before, and could hear their sound as the piece took shape. I wanted to draw on their expressive qualities, but also to create a child-like simplicity.
Premiered by Fenella Humphreys and Martin Roscoe on 16 October 2025 as part of Fenella’s artist residency at Wigmore Hall. Commissioned by Fenella Humphreys with support from Wigmore Hall, Vaughan Williams Foundation and the Fidelio Charitable Trust.
Sally Beamish, 2025
Ludwig van Beethoven Sonata no. 5 Op. 24 ’Spring’
I. Allegro
II. Adagio molto espressivo
III. Scherzo: Allegro molto
IV. Rondo: Allegro ma non troppo
The F major “Spring” sonata from 1801 was given this epithet after Beethoven’s death, only appearing in the 1860s and was probably used to represent the works elegant melodic structure. It is very familiar, probably out of the 10 violin sonatas being as well known (and often performed) as the Kreutzer (Op. 47). The work is characterised by many conversational dialogues between the instruments with each (uncommon for the time) having equal prominence. Beethoven’s music is frequently (and crudely) divided into three periods: Early, Middle and Late. This sonata is exactly in the grey area between the early and middle periods, and as such signposts how he was moving between early, external influences and embryonic personal styles that are associated with works from each of these periods.
Have you read our brief chat with Fenella?